Dry Cleaners Were Disappearing Even Before the Pandemic

Dry cleaners and professional laundries in the US have been hard hit by the Covid-19 Pandemic. The 21st century has also had it's fair share.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of businesses that offer dry-cleaning and laundry services, except coin-operated, fell in the first quarter of 2022. Since 2001, it has fallen at a 2% annual rate.

The numbers are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a tabulation of state and federal unemployment insurance data that serves as the benchmark for the BLS's higher-profile monthly non-farm payrolls report. The true number of dry cleaners is overstated because some mom and pop businesses don't have unemployment insurance.

More-Casual office fashions were a big part of the pre-pandemic decline. Dry-cleaning emissions were cracked down on by the EPA. Changing immigration patterns have happened. Immigrants from South Korea own many small dry cleaners in the US, but that immigration wave subsided long ago and has now turned into a retirement wave as their children pursue other careers.

The industry won't go away because people will still need dry cleaned and laundered. As it consolidates the prices it charges keep going up, and has outpaced inflation in 8 of the last 10 years

There is a big clean apple.

New York County, also known as Manhattan, has the highest concentration of laundry and dry-cleaning establishments in the US. The lowest county is Pima County, Arizona.